"COAL AND DIAMONDS, sand and
computer
chips, cancer and healthy tissue: throughout history, variations in the
arrangement of atoms have distinguished the cheap from the cherished, the
diseased from the healthy. Arranged one way, atoms make up soil, air, and water;
arranged another, they make up ripe strawberries. Arranged one way, they make up
homes and fresh air; arranged another they make up ash and smoke." -
K. Eric
Drexler

Definition:
Nanotechnology, "the manufacturing technology of the
21st century," is defined
as the understanding and control of matter at
dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers (billionths of a meter, or 10

m.)
A
nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter - smaller than the wavelength of
visible light and a hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair. At this scale, unique properties
of
materials emerge which can be applied to produce technologies and products with
entirely new abilities and applications. At the nanoscale, physical, chemical,
optical and electrical properties of materials differ from the properties of matter at
either
smaller scales, such as atoms, or at the larger scales of the "middle world"
that we
humans inhabit. Nanotechnology (NT) involves
imaging, measuring, modeling, and
manipulating matter only a few
nanometers in size.

The Atom: To convey a sense of
the infinitesimally miniscule scale of an atom, consider that there are an astonishing
6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that's 6 sextillion, or 6
billiontrillion) atoms in just one
drop of water! Atoms
are just fractions of a nanometer across, ranging in size from the
smallest, helium with a diameter of 0.064 nm, to the largest,
cesium with a
0.450 nm diameter. But atoms are not solid, hard, round balls, they are in
fact vaguely defined spheres that are almost completely empty. Electrons orbit the central nucleus in a
"probability cloud" of possible locations while popping in and out of existence.
The bound together protons and neutrons at the center of an atom are
collectively called the nucleus. The nucleus contains over 99.9% of an atom's
mass, but is just 1/23,000th to 1/145,000th the diameter of the atom itself. The
rest of the space inside an atom is occupied by vacuum - it is completely empty.
We think of atoms as solid, however even the sub-atomic particles that make up
the entire mass of the atom are not 'solid' in any traditional sense of the
word. Collectively, groups of atoms fit together in various discrete ways to
form molecules. For the purpose of simplification when dealing with individual atoms we can think of and treat them as elementary spheres.

Atoms are the Lego blocks of the Universe, out of which any physical thing can
be built. Nanotech will make feats that seem entirely impossible to us today, become
commonplace in the world of tomorrow. Nature already uses nanotechnology in the
molecular machinery of every living thing. Nature's designs are working examples
to us of what can be made. However, rather than using trial and error, we can apply intelligent
design principles to our creations.

Nanotechnology: The
next technological revolution.
According to futurist and inventor,
Raymond Kurzweil, the Nanotech Age is expected to begin
between 2025 and
2050, bringing an end to the current
Information Age
which began in 1990. Humankind is poised at the precipice of the single greatest innovation
in the history of science and technology. Coming is a Nano Revolution that will be at
least as transformative as the Industrial Revolution (perhaps much more so), but packed into just a few
years. Well beyond present-day nanotech
applications, mature "molecular manufacturing" or
"molecular nanotechnology" will enable us to manifest our dreams (or
nightmares). We are nearing the ability to build molecules out of atoms mechanochemically, and to use
these molecular building blocks to construct virtually any substance or device we can conceive of. This most
powerful technology of all will radically transform and extend the capabilities of
practically every area of human endeavor by exploring the ultimate limits of
fabrication. It is a potential answer to all of our problems, and it hands us the power to destroy ourselves and our
home more easily than ever before.

The
Universe has been seeking complexity at an ever faster rate since the
Big
Bang, or its equivalent, began space and time. Once some level of complexity has been achieved, this is
used as the basis for a bootstrapping effect into ever deeper complexity. In
some sense, it appears that this progression is the very purpose of the cosmos. We and
our technologies are a part of this natural mechanism, and the creations of our
creations will be its crowning achievement. It appears that this process has
taken on a life, mind, and intentionality of its own, and that we are mere pawns
in its game. This process that transferred to us with the making of the first
stone tool, ultimately ends with molecular nanotechnology, or perhaps something
unimaginably more advanced.

The Nano Age is beginning, as is an exponential climb into a vastly different world.
Nanotechnology will become the most powerful tool the human species has ever
used. With it, we will literally fashion the world of tomorrow into whatever we
so desire. This is an awesome responsibility, and one that deserves extremely
careful consideration now so that we don't find ourselves unconsciously moving
in undesirable directions later. The character of the nanotech-world we are beginning
to create is yet unknown, but we feel there is real cause for rational optimism.
This site attempts to show why we should be excited by the prospect of an
entirely improved world, both for us and the planet as a whole, and outline some of
the potential pitfalls we must avoid as the technology gains
momentum. Presented herein is an attempt to unveil the possible ramifications
of (near and long-term) future nanotechnology on our world, through a projection of
current technological trends. Our primary focus is on the positive potential of
this transformative technology, with a separate section devoted to possible
dangers, misuse and downsides of NT. It is not possible to predict with much precision
what our world, transfigured by the nanotech revolution, will look and feel like,
because much of what will shape that character has not even been imagined yet.
We are standing at a time before the invention of the automobile, trying to envision
superhighways and traffic jams. Though we cannot predict where we will end up in
exact detail, we can extrapolate trends in computation and miniaturization and
incorporate the latest scientific breakthroughs to construct a (hopefully) relatively
accurate and vivid account of our nano-enabled future. For the first time in our
history we have the power to literally design a future of our choice. May we
choose wisely.

Medicine is probably one of the most exciting areas for
potential applications of nanoscience and technology. Such current givens as
disease and even aging itself promise to be overturned. Disease and ill health are caused
largely by damage at the cellular and molecular level. Today's finest surgical
tools are, at this scale, large and crude.

The medical
nanorobot (nanobot for short) is expected to become the ultimate tool
of nanomedicine. A nanobot is a still theoretical robot the size of a
bacterium, composed of molecular-size parts, such as gears, bearings, and
ratchets."Medical
nanorobotics holds the greatest promise for curing disease and extending
health span. With diligent effort, the first fruits of medical nanorobotics
could begin to appear in clinical treatment as early as the
2020s."
-Robert A. Freitas Jr.

The human body and mind,
though extremely impressive, and still the most complex thing we know of in
the observable universe, in fact
leave considerable
room for improvement. Evolution has slowly but persistently worked for
billions of years to create creatures that are capable of carrying on its legacy
of incremental complexification. Artificial red blood cells called respirocytes, for
instance, could store and transport 236 times more
oxygen than a natural red blood
cell, and would be only a fraction of the size. Computers can
potentially be 1012 times smaller and use
106 times less
power than they do today.

"Nanotechnology should let us economically build a broad range of complex
molecular
machines (including, not incidentally, molecular computers). It will let us
build fleets of computer controlled molecular tools much smaller than a human
cell and built with the accuracy and precision of drug molecules. Such tools
will let medicine, for the first time, intervene in a sophisticated and
controlled way at the cellular and molecular level. They could remove
obstructions in the circulatory system, kill cancer cells, or take over the
function of sub cellular organelles. Just as today we have the artificial heart,
so in the future we could have the artificial mitochondrion.

Equally dramatic, nanotechnology
will give us new instruments to examine tissue in unprecedented detail.
Sensors smaller than a cell would give us an inside and exquisitely precise
look at ongoing function. Tissue that was either chemically fixed or flash
frozen could be analyzed literally down to the molecular level, giving a
completely detailed "snapshot" of cellular, sub cellular and molecular
activities."

The field of
cryonics depends upon the precise control over
molecular structures in order to repair the delicate structures of cells
damaged by both storage at extremely low temperature, and the reversal of
toxcicity induced by the cryoprotectant agents used. Advanced nanotechnology
could make this as routine a procedure as anesthetic in surgery is today, and
could even make manned long-distance space travel more practical in the
future.

Nanocomputers are expected to become the logical successors to today's
microcomputers/microprocessors. A supercomputer today that takes up a large
building and uses over 10 MW of power could potentially be shrunk down to less
than a cubic millimeter in volume and use less than 2 W of power to do
the same amount of processing with maximally efficient molecular
nanocomputing. The oft-cited "Moore's Law," (which states that the number of
transistors that can inexpensively be put in an integrated circuit doubles
roughly every 18-24 months,) and is expected to continue its exponential
progression for roughly 20 years longer until it reaches the fundamental
barrier (for now) of the atom, will lead us to the nanocomputer.

Data storage capacity is also
headed directly for the fundamental limit of the atom. It will one day be possible to
store at least 2 millionterabytes of data in a cubic millimeter of space with
molecular nanotechnology. A computer nanoprocessor would have individual logic units
smaller than a cubic nanometer in volume. Most objects in our environment will
be imbued with intelligence via microscopic nanocomputers. Almost limitless
nanocomputer processing
power will enable novel applications beyond our powers to imagine in the early
21st century.

Nanomaterials is a branch of the field of materials science which deals with
materials having morphological features smaller than 100 nm in at least one
dimension. This classification includes thin films, quantum dots,
etc. When matter is reduced to the
nanoscale (1 - 100 nm,) the effects of increased surface-area, in tandem with quantum effects,
begin to dominate material properties. As a particle's size decreases, a greater
proportion of its atoms are found at the surface compared with those inside.
Larger surface area equals greater reactivity. Quantum confinement results in
size-dependent property changes, meaning materials with nanoscale dimensions
(nanomaterials) can start to exhibit very different optical, electrical and
magnetic properties, (especially
as the structure or particle size approaches the smaller end of the
nanoscale) compared to what they would on a macroscale. This effect has been
likened to an expansion of the entire periodic table of the elements out
into another dimension; as though we now have access to many new primary
elements which did not exist before, enabling unique/novel applications. For instance,
when made into nanoparticles, opaque substances may become transparent
(copper); inert materials attain catalytic properties (platinum); stable
materials turn combustible (aluminum); solids become liquids at room temperature
(gold); insulators turn into conductors (silicon). Materials such as gold, which
are chemically inert at normal scales, can serve as a potent chemical
catalysts at the nanoscale. Much of the fascination and potential of nanotechnology stems from
these unique surface area and quantum phenomena exhibited by matter at the
nanoscale.

Nanomaterials are not simply another step in the miniaturization of
materials. They often require very different production approaches. There
are several processes to create nanomaterials, classified as "top-down" or
"bottom-up." Although many nanomaterials are currently at the laboratory
stage of manufacture, a few of them are being commercialised.

In the short-term, the level of simulated realism delivered through Head
Mounted Displays (HMD) will likely approach the point of visual believability.
Current technologies such as head-tracking and haptic suits are round-about
methods of achieving simulated reality.

Audio: You may think that "surround sound" audio technology is about as good
as it can get, however there is room for improvement. Holophony (or holophonic
sound) is an existing audio recording technique that uses the principles of
holographics but applied to sound to recreate the impression of a sound source
360 degrees around you as well as any position above or below. Omnidirectional
microphones are used to enable the recreation of both the shape and direction
of sound wavefronts, resulting in realistic, lifelike, three-dimensional
sounding audio recordings.

Current technological abilities lend themselves well to simulating sight and
sound with reasonably high-fidelity, but they do nothing to address the other
three senses. In order to render a more believable overall virtual
environment, tactile (haptic) feedback and simulated smells will be required.
Virtual Taste will require direct manipulation of the brain through either
invasive or non-invasive means. Touch, taste and smell simulation will become
much more effective and economically viable for commercial applications than
today's crude approaches as a direct result of nanotech advances.

Virtual Reality (VR) offers freedom from the constraints of the laws of physical reality. The
laws of physics can be perfectly simulated in a virtual environment, or they
be modified or even completely ignored. VR is the ultimate tool to express the
imagination, and it is the only medium with which the imagination can potentially
be expressed without limit. Technology tends to blur the lines between real and virtual. We have been
moving toward VR since we started changing our physical environments into
something 'other' than the natural world. Cities are an example of a virtual
reality.

An ironic consequence of MNT - the ability to construct almost anything out of
atoms with absolute precision - is that it may eventually lead us directly
away from the entire paradigm of building things out of physical material.
Virtual Reality will enable us to build worlds not out of atoms, but out of
light. Even with god-like control over atoms, they are a finite resource, but
with 100% realistic VR there are no limits to what we can do or the amount of
it we can create.

There are many possible applications of VR, from entertainment and
fantasy to therapeutic applications, training, medical and engineering
visualizations. VR has come a long way in recent years and
is already being used in all of these areas. Nanotechnology will create new
applications for VR and new methods of achieving virtual realities. Besides a
simply more advanced/finer resolution nanotech HMD/haptic suit approach,
nanobots inside the brain could temporarily shut off normal sensory data and
replace it with data signals to construct a virtual environment. Similarly, but less
invasively, ultrasonic waves of varying frequencies and patterns beamed into
the brain can recreate all five senses. Another approach that most closely
resembles the sci-fi holodeck of
Star-Trek is "utility fog" - a
hi-tech
re-configurable arrangement of micro-scale,
atomically preciserobots
(foglets) capable of creating temporary, simulated three-dimensional
structures.

SecondLife(SL) is a 3D virtual world that makes use of the connectivity of
the Internet to enable users (called Residents) to interact with one another
through virtual avatars. SL shares some similarities with Massively
Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, (MMORPG)
however the biggest difference is that Residents are able to help construct
the virtual world in which they interact. Residents can socialize, explore,
take part in various activities, and travel by teleporting instantly to and
from any location they wish. SL represents an alternative way to share
information and interact with others over the Internet, while bringing a
social dimension to the web that is currently missing from it in its 2D
incarnation. Internet-connected, interactive, immersive, three-dimensional,
computer-generated environments incorporating the defining characteristics of,
and improving upon the SecondLife model are slated to be the next big thing in
VR.

Faster, smaller, lighter computers produced with nanocircuitry will
enable a wide variety of novel applications across all areas of military
technology. Complete electronic systems will fit into a cubic millimeter or
smaller volume making them extremely portable. Sophisticated electronics are
expected to be implemented in almost every area of the military, being
integrated into pallets, boxes, transport containers, and all equipment from
rifles, ammunition, glasses and even clothing. A supercomputer by today's
standards, built with molecular electronics circuitry, could easily be fit into
a standard rifle bullet to intelligently guide it to the target. Computing is
expected to become integrated into virtually every object, imbuing intelligence
and enabling intercommunication between devices and soldiers.

Continual improvement of computers,
possibly leading to quantum computers (if possible) in around the 20 year time
frame give or take, will have increasing uses in communications, code breaking,
optimization problems, simulations, etc.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
will be increasingly used on the battlefield directly, or to train soldiers.
AI may eventually approach, reach and ultimately exceed human intelligence.
It is uncertain how this will be integrated into various military systems.
It is expected that AI/robotics systems will increasingly be used in place
of soldiers, likely using telepresence to put distance between humans and
increasingly powerful nanotech weapons. AI will implemented in large scale
strategy planning, battle management, and logistics systems. Unmanned,
intelligent (able to learn), distributed robotic systems of all sizes and
kinds will be routinely used.

Battery technology will not scale
down quite as rapidly or dramatically as computer systems are expected to,
however they will also see a large reduction in volume thanks to NT. Portable
power generation from high efficiency and extremely light weight
nanocomposite collapsible or roll-up solar panels would provide immediate power
or recharging capabilities. Combined with much improved batteries utilizing
thin-films technologies will deliver vastly higher power to weight ratios in the
field, while improved efficiencies will make better use of available power. Fuel
cells with nano-structured electrodes and membranes will likely be widely
employed in small, medium and large scale applications. Flexible displays that
are higher resolution and better efficiency, much more rugged, and easier to see
in high light will be widely employed.

NT will provide an extended array of
materials with new and improved properties. Composite materials have a
long history of military use, and nanoscale composites promise significant
improvement over current material properties. Nanomaterials will reduce weight
requirements while increasing functionality of supplies. Nanocomposite magnets
will allow stronger permanent magnets, making smaller and lighter weight motors
and generators with higher energy density. Materials with reduced flammability,
better insulation/conduction of heat/electricity etc., increased elastic
modulus, lighter, harder, improved tensile strength and higher fracture
toughness to name just a few are all expected to lead to novel military uses
from armor to aircraft and far beyond.

Active materials that can exert a
force, or change shape under various conditions already find wide use in
military. NT will improve these properties and lead to entirely new active
materials (for example, using contracting molecules to move an exoskeleton, or
adjusting stiffness/form to vary aerodynamic characteristics.) Integration with
sensors, power and processing can turn active materials into 'smart'
materials. Improved NT-enabled materials will find uses throughout the military,
immediately to 20 years or more in the future for various aspects.

Novel
weapons are an almost inevitable consequence of NT research. Existing weapons
systems will at first be enhanced by NT, then in many instances replaced
entirely.

Nanotech will work on several fronts to greatly increase available power from
sustainable generation while lowering the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Much of
the power generated today is wasted in transmission from a centralized
generation plant to the end-user, or does not get used for the desired purpose
due to inefficiencies. NT again is able to offer solutions to these issues.
Decentralized energy increases reliability and security, and perhaps most
significantly, puts land to better use.

Wind
and solar power are perhaps the first sustainable methods of
generating
power to
come to mind, however there are many others. Today's silicon solar panels are
crude, heavy, bulky, fragile, inefficient and expensive. With NT addressing
every one of these issues, solar may become the top pick for clean and
sustainable worldwide power generation. NT is also advancing battery technology
to allow much higher capacity, more durable cells to be manufactured less
expensively. Newer technologies such as
ultracapacitors may take over completely
from batteries because of their potential for much higher discharge rates,
decreased recharge times and greater number of possible cycles. Current
ultracapacitors have an energy density that is only about 1/10,000th the
volumetric energy density of gasoline, however they have the potential to be
greatly improved, whereas gasoline has a fixed energy density and is
non-renewable.

Cost
steers the direction we take with regard to energy generation and storage, and
for most of the history of transportation and industrial/domestic energy use,
oil and gas have been the #1 pick for inexpensive and highly concentrated power.
NT will start to make better, alternative power sources cost competitive and
eventually much less expensive than traditional
oil/gas. Even before prices
reach par, many people and industries will make the switch out of concern for
the environment etc. Ultimately the use of fossil fuels will be all but entirely
phased out - hopefully well before they run out.

Current-day battery technology tops out at an energy density of ~360 Wh/kg.
Gasoline, by comparison, has a very high energy density of roughly 12,700 Wh/kg
(45.7 MJ/kg). Through nanotechnology, the energy density of batteries can
potentially be increased even beyond that of liquid fuels. For use in vehicles,
electric motors also have a higher energy conversion efficiency and lower mass
than combustion engines. These factors combine to allow for performance
specifications that far exceed current technology in every measurable way.

It is prudent to consider the possible economic outcomes of the accelerated
emergence of this very advanced technology. Even partial realization of the
potentials of NT over the coming decades has the potential to forever alter
the structure of society, business and economics. NT will affect all aspects
of economics: employment, wages, purchasing, etc. Nanotechnology dismantles
certainty so effectively that not even death or taxes are safe.

Once nanotechnological developments reach a critical mass of innovation, most
vertical industries (ones that are focused on a relatively narrow range of
goods and services) will be affected.

It can easily be seen that some nanotech innovations would have a radical
impact on the current economic system. For instance, the cost of manufacturing
all physical goods will be greatly reduced. Nanochips may one day make
possible computers many times faster than today's best supercomputers, that
would fit comfortably in your pocket. This would affect much more than just
the computer industry. The markets for plastics and steel may be virtually
eliminated thanks to super-strong nanomaterials

Markets, industries and entire economies are deeply interlinked. Large
disruptions like those expected to occur due to NT will have widespread and
far-reaching impact, both positive and negative.

The future economy is expected to be (re)shaped in large part by
nanotechnology. The risks of not anticipating and preparing for the resulting
changes to the economy are too immense to consider. The world is already being economically reshaped daily due to current
innovations. NT will put this situation into overdrive.

Looking further into
the future,
advanced technologies such as the
molecular assembler (replicator) will, if they become a reality, cause drastic changes to the
economic infrastructure.

Nanotechnology poses major risks in terms of both
abuse and accidents. It
grants us the power to absolutely annihilate ourselves and our beautiful planet.
Right now, while the pace of this technological ingression into ever
deeper complexity is the slowest it will ever again be, we must get ahead of
the release of new NT products with a regulatory system that truly works - and
stay ahead of it permanently. Now is the time to begin, not after the first
casualties of unregulated NT are seen. We must plan today to meet the
challenges of tomorrow or we may find ourselves playing a desperate and
difficult game of catch-up.

The final frontier, it seems, will not be the vastness
of space, but the ultra-miniscule realm of the
atoms.
As we approach the fundamental physical limits of what can be done with the
matter in the Universe, truly magical opportunities await us. Ray Kurzweil has shown
that our technology now doubles its capabilities every 12 months. This
yearly exponential (inverse of
logarithmic) growth in the form of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024,
2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536, 131072, 262144, 524288, 1048576... clearly
shows that though the pace begins slowly, there is a massive increase packed
into the last few years sampled. We can expect computer processors to be 1000+
times faster than they are today in just ten years, one
million times faster in
20 years, and a billion times faster in 30 years. Not only will processing power
vastly increase in the coming years, but the volume and mass of physical
material required will also shrink significantly. Carry these trends of more
power in less size forward at the same exponential pace they have been going
since before the first electronic computer, and you eventually run hard up
against the atom.

If we continue to stay on the same track we have
been on for the past thousand+ years, we will make a great transition into being
a species that has full control over atoms. The world will become a molecular
manufacturing power and barring self annihilation, humanity will literally
transcend itself. It is hypothesised that this will lead us to ultimately hand
the baton of technological progress on to
artificially intelligent
machines who will in turn create generations of computers
successively more
intelligent than themselves. This process will continue with greater and
greater (exponential) speed, ultimately culminating in what is referred to as
a
technological singularity. At this point, the human era will be ended,
either through obsolescence or a merger with technology. This will give rise
to a change at least comparable in scope to the rise of human life on this
planet.

Transhumanism refers to a mind with
perhaps three or four times the cognitive (computational) capacity of a human.
Posthumanism refers to
an evolution
beyond that of transhumanism.

The Environment

Technology in its early, imperfect
form - the only form we have seen so far - has been a mostly negative force on the
environment. Molecular Nanotechnology (MNT) will produce effectively no waste and not
involve any cutting, grinding, sanding, melting, forging, or herding of large
numbers of unruly atoms. Nanocomputers will ultimately control the direct
"printing" of any item via an assembler straight from data using pure feedstock
atoms or molecules. MNT will make exactly what it is expected to make - no
more, no less - and therefore no pollution. Matter will be used more efficiently by this technology
and put to much better use; rather than just taking up mass and space, objects will become
multi-functional, intelligent and atomically precice. Our burning of fossil
fuels as a crude source of energy has put enough carbon into the atmosphere to
be recycled into a vast number of useful products. Atmospheric carbon
scrubbing nano-filters could be inexpensively employed to harvest the excess carbon
from the air for use as a feedstock material.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

In 50 years, people will look
back on the present era with the same viewpoint that we currently reserve for the
medieval times - when technology was primitive and people lived short,
impoverished lives. Technological progress around the world has been steadily
refining its methods to manufacture more precise, less expensive products.
Extrapolate these remarkably regular trends forward a few more decades and it
becomes quite clear where we are headed: molecular manufacturing.

NT cannot create matter or transmutate atoms of one kind into atoms of another.
NT will make mining materials from earth/space a less expensive and more
automated process thereby decreasing the cost of elemental materials across the
board. Presumably, the value of a relatively scarce element, for example gold,
will drop somewhat over the long run, but not a lot (unless we can inexpensively
mine asteroids, or discover an economic way to make gold atoms, etc.) Materials
such as diamonds, which are scarce only due to the way their atoms are arranged,
not the kind of atoms they are constructed from (carbon in this case), are
expected to plummet in value. Current-day manufacturing techniques ensure that
costs rise rapidly as the required level of purity of a material goes up. 100%
purity is essentially impossible to achieve today. NT should make purity close
to 100% the norm. With NT, existing elements gain new uses and more plentiful
elements can replace expensive materials in many applications. Iron and steel,
for example, are heavy, weak, expensive and prone to corrosion. Nanotech could
make a very inexpensive alternative form of carbon fiber from nanotubes that is
far lighter, stronger, and longer-lasting than steel.

Nanotechnology is a uniquely
interdisciplinary enabling technology. Drawing on the resources and expertise of
every other field, nanotech will stretch the limits of what is possible.

CONCLUSIONA Nanotech Future?

The extent to which molecular nanotechnology has the potential to reshape our world,
down to the most fundamental levels of possibility is truly revolutionary, in
every sense of the word. Assuming advanced molecular nanotechnology becomes a
reality, which it appears is a virtual certainty at this point, it will play a
pivotal role in either the survival or extinction of humanity. The
power to arrange atoms will ultimately prove far greater than even the power to rip
them apart or fuze them together. Based on this
conclusion, and the assumption that nanotechnology has already gained an
irrevocable presence in every facet of our world, we postulate that staying on
top of all current nanoscience breakthroughs and nanotech products should
become near priority #1 for all concerned governmental/private powers alike.
Ultimately, either governments or private organizations will be relied upon to
protect the world against the threats of nanotechnology. Today, national defense is the responsibility of governments, but certain areas such as
protection against computer viruses for example, may be more effectively
managed privately. Which level of society is charged with controlling such new
threats remains to be seen, however we suspect that it will (and should be)
somewhat of a division between the two. It may even be necessary to create a
new world nanotech organization with the authority to oversee both at an even
higher level.

We
hope that this website broadens your awareness of the potential of this
technology to transform our world and lives, while serving as an effective
guide to our not-so-distant future. May we choose to use our new found
power for the betterment of all!